The Official Blog of Tiger Home Services

Monthly Archives: December 2015

The New Year is upon us and everyone is busy preparing for their New Year resolutions. But don’t forget that your home might need a few resolutions as well. Make your home feel shiny and new again with these remarkable New Year resolutions!

1. Clean Your Dryer Vent

This is an important New Year resolution for your home because the dryer vent is often overlooked. A dirty dryer vent not only costs you money, due to being inefficient and causing you to run your dryer for longer periods of time, but a dirty dryer vent is also a major fire hazard. There are nearly 16,000 house fires each year caused by lint trapped in dryer vents. So don’t forget to have those dirty dryer vents cleaned periodically.

2. Check Your Sump Pump

A properly functioning sump pump is absolutely essential to preventing a flooded basement. You want to check your sump pump regularly to ensure that everything is flowing smoothly.

3. Protect Your Home with Motion Detector Lights

Having an Electrician install motion detector lights is an effective way to protect your home from potential theft. Motion detector lights are also extremely helpful when you need a little extra light at night.

4. Remember Surge Protectors are Your Friend

This New Year invest, in some powerful surge protectors. Surge protectors protect your electronics and appliances from power surges. Which means by simply plugging your electronics into surge protectors, you can save thousands of dollars by not needing to replace your devices every time a surge hits.

5. Change Your Filter Monthly

Regularly changing your filter is the best way to prolong the life of your furnace and air conditioning units. Plus, your heating and cooling equipment will run more efficiently, saving you money on your monthly power bill.

If you have any plumbing, heating, cooling or electrical needs, simply call us at (866) 844-3770 or feel free to check us out online at TrustTiger.com.

Hosting friends and family during the holidays can be a lot of fun. But hosting can also cause a lot of stress. All of that running around and those last minute preparations can really suck a lot of the joy out of the hosting experience. The good news is that hosting doesn’t have to be a major headache. Here are some simple tips to help make this holiday season a little less stressful.

1. Don’t pass your stress onto your oven

If you’re doing a lot of baking/cooking for the holidays, it’s already too late for you to run your oven’s self-cleaning mode. The self-cleaning mode puts a lot of stress on your oven. So if you follow a self-cleaning cycle with heavy oven usage; it’s very likely that your oven won’t perform at its peak levels. Even worse, your oven might flat out fail you, right when you need it the most.

2. Make sure there’s plenty of room in your fridge

Before you get started in the kitchen, clean out your fridge and make sure you have enough room for everything. There’s nothing that adds more stress than coming home from the store with all of your cooking supplies and having nowhere to put them.

3. Don’t give your in-laws added ammunition

When cleaning your home, don’t forget about the following areas:

Shower Curtains

Shower heads and faucets

Medicine cabinets

Drains (one of the most overlooked places in a bathroom when it comes to cleaning)

Your garbage disposal, so you can avoid unpleasant odors

Your porch

The base of your toilet

Your burners

4. Have your pipes fixed, before it’s too late

Even the smallest plumbing issue can turn into a huge disaster once your home is overrun with visitors. Save yourself a major headache by having one of our plumbing experts address all of your plumbing concerns before your guests arrive!

5. Be a hosting superstar by having extras on hand

If you’re having guests over, there’s a decent chance that someone will forget something fairly important. Keep extra of the following on hand, to avoid a mad dash to store.

Toothbrush and toothpaste

Mouthwash

Deodorant (a cheap spray can, one for men and one for women, will do the trick)

Shampoo and body wash

Floss

Etc.

6. Make sure outlets are easily accessible

You can pretty much count on all of your guests bringing smartphones, tablets, portable video games, laptops, etc. And they will all need places to charge those electronics. So, makes sure that your outlets aren’t blocked by furniture or decorations.

7. Make a list of things you don’t want to run out of and make sure you stock up!

Toilet paper (you don’t want to run out on a day when most of the stores are closed)

Tissues (we are entering cold and flu season)

Aspirin/Ibuprofen

Snacks/food

Anything else you think you might need

8. Don’t underestimate the power of keeping it simple

It’s tempting to see a ton of fun holiday ideas on Pinterest and want to do them all. But trying to over do it when hosting is the biggest cause of stress. Don’t be afraid to trim a few things off of your to-do list. You’ll be more relaxed and able to enjoy the festivities you helped create.

9. You won’t win any hosting awards if you buy the cheapest toilet paper you can find

Winter is everyone’s favorite time of year. Just kidding! Winter is a rough season for those of us who live in the Midwest. All of that snow, ice, frigid winds, bitterly cold temperatures. Plus all of the fun that accompanies the unpleasant weather. Like; icy windshields, frozen pipes, high heating bills, snow covered driveways, cold and flu season, etc. winter can be a long, miserable three months. Not to mention, expensive! The good news is that there are several things you can do to help cut the costs of staying warm and comfortable this winter.The cost of heating your home is by far your biggest expense during the winter months, but there are ways to cut down on your costs.

Change your filter at least once a month, to help ensure that your furnace runs as efficiently as possible.

Setting your programmable thermostat back 10 to 15 degrees when you’re not home, can save you up to 15% on your heating bill.

To keep the warm air flowing freely, be sure to clean warm-air registers, baseboard heaters, and radiators as needed. Remember to make sure they’re not blocked by furniture, carpeting or drapes.

Place heat-resistant radiator reflectors between exterior walls and the radiators.

Keep your curtains and blinds on your windows open during the day to allow the sunlight to enter your home. And close them at night to help keep heat inside and reduce the chill you may feel from cold windows.

Hot water is a precious commodity, especially if you’re the last one to shower in the morning. Plus, with the holidays coming upon us, you may find yourself with a few extra house guests using up all of your hot water. And no one wants to have to take a cold shower before heading out to face the world.

Well, good news, your family and house guests can use all the hot water they want and there will still be plenty left for you. How is this possible? Simply trade in your bulky tank water heater for a smaller, better tankless water heater.

Traditional tank water heaters keep hot water in a storage tank. Creating a limited supply of hot water. Tankless water heaters, on the other hand, don’t store water at all, so they don’t constantly need to re-heat a large amount of water. Instead, tankless water heaters instantly heat water as you’re using it. Providing you with an endless supply of hot water.

Tankless water heaters ability to heat water on demand means if you happen to be fifth in line for the bathroom and someone just ran the dishwasher; you’ll still be able to enjoy a nice hot shower.

Another benefit of a tankless water heater is the money you will save on your energy bill each month. Conventional storage tank water heaters need to constantly use energy to heat water around the clock. Tankless water heaters only run when you’re using hot water, which means you can save up to 34% on your energy bill.

Plus, tankless water heaters can last up to three times longer than traditional tank heaters. Meaning, you’ll save money down the road when you don’t have to replace your water heater as often as you do now.

To have a Plumbing Expert evaluate your hot water needs, simply call us at 1.888.9TIGER4 today or feel free to check us out online at TrustTiger.com.

If you have any plumbing, heating, cooling or electrical needs, simply call us at:

The holiday season has arrived and many of us are in decoration mode. All of these fun holiday decorations really do brighten our homes and neighborhoods. However, it is important to decorate with some caution, in order to protect your home and family from a potential holiday accident. Here are a few tips to make decorating your home for holidays safer 1. Inspect your holiday lights before going through the process of hanging them

Everyone loves holiday lights! They’re festive, bright and available in so many different fun colors, but it’s important to inspect each strand you use for frayed wires or loosened bulbs that could pose a fire hazard.

2. Remember to turn off your lights overnight

It’s tempting to leave those cheery lights on all night long but it’s best to let those lights rest. Plus, leaving that many lights on around the clock will leave you with an unpleasant surprise in January when you open your power bill.

3. Ensure that your lights are secure

Loose lights are a serious tripping hazard. Especially for small children or pets.

4. Use ribbon not wire hooks

If you have small children in your home, those wire hooks on your ornaments can be really dangerous. Instead, swap those hooks out for some festive ribbon or string.

5. Spring for the shatterproof ornaments

This is another tip for homes with children and/or pets (or clumsy adults). Glass ornaments are fragile and will likely break if they fall from the tree. And the last thing you want is broken glass everywhere.

6. Bells are a great defense

Holiday bells on your tree not only make great decorations but they’re also a brilliant warning system if little hands or paws get too close to the tree.

7. Little mouths require larger ornaments

Pets and small kids sometimes can’t resist grabbing a hold of colorful objects and popping them in their mouths. That’s why it’s wise to spring for larger ornaments.

8. Be smart when using candles

Candles unquestionably add a little extra holiday flare. Just remember to be smart and never leave them unattended.

9. Don’t use a ladder by yourself

Ladders can be dangerous and you never want to use them to hang decorations unless someone is with you, just in case.

10. Choose your tree wisely

If you’re opting for a real tree this year, you’ll want to ensure to pick one that’s not a dried out fire hazard. Look for a tree with green, healthy needles are that harder to remove. Check the trunk and make sure it’s sticky to the touch. Give the tree a good shake or bounce on the ground, if a lot of needles fall, the tree is dried out.

11. Use caution when decorating around the fireplace

Don’t place the tree or other decorations too close to the fireplace. And when decorating the fireplace, make sure that your stockings, garland and other decorations are hanging high and away from the flames.

12. Use electricity wisely (Bonus holiday lights tips)

On average each year there are 150 House fires caused by holiday lights.

Yes, it’s true that a new furnace can reduce your heating costs. If you have an older furnace, it may seem to be working fine, but it’s likely costing you a lot more money to run than you might think. So, from an economic standpoint, it would be wise to replace it.

When compared to a 17-year-old furnace, a new furnace can save the typical family hundreds of dollars per year. Based on the efficiency of your older furnace, a new furnace can cut your utility bills by 40%.

Not only will you have lower utility bills, but the comfort and quiet operation of a new system will surprise you. You can even have a computerized thermostat installed with your new furnace for even more added efficiency.

Upgrading to a new furnace is no small decision and there are several factors to be considered. Our technical experts can help guide you through the whole process and explain everything in a way that’s simple to understand. To learn more simply give us a call today at 1.888.9TIGER4 or feel free to check us out online at TrustTiger.com.

If you have any plumbing, heating, cooling or electrical needs, simply call us at: